The focus of TACTILE is to develop a mixed reality (MR) software for elderly people for playing board games and doing physical training exercises on MR glasses. The MR environment will support the high usability of the overall system by combining a common board game setup (including real game pieces) with virtual game pieces. The system recognizes the real game parts on the gaming board of player A and sends this information to player B where they are represented by virtual game parts. This process is bidirectional and so the two spatially separated players can play one single game together.
The user can interact in a tactile way with the real playing pieces and has social interaction via IP telephony. TACTILE also trains the physical health of the user by providing training sessions. A virtual assistant explains the exercises and accompanies the user during the session. This combination of cognitive and physical training has a proven positive effect on preventing dementia.
Objectives
Elderly people are frequently affected by a decline of mental and physical abilities, which results in anxiety, frailty, loneliness and reclusiveness. Often these persons live alone, spatially separated from their families and friends, not able to meet or visit them on a regular basis. The risk of developing dementia can be reduced by playing challenging games, interacting with other people and doing physical exercises. Therefore, TACTILE will provide a user-friendly solution that addresses these challenges by providing a mixed reality software that offers board games that can be played remotely with family or friends, and physical training exercises accompanied by a virtual avatar.
Expected results and impact
TACTILE addresses older adults that wish to maintain an active life, to prevent cognitive and physical decline and to remain socially included. Therefore, TACTILE addresses on the one side social interaction, because it targets the need of elderly persons living alone to interact with their family or friends on a regular basis. On the other side, it addresses the challenge of insufficient mental activity as well as the insufficient physical activity of elderly persons. The innovative TACTILE project will be the starting point for the development and market introduction of a new generation solution, because mixed reality (MR) has never been brought to the target group before
Partners
Partners involved in the project
- Project Name: TACTILE – Preventing Dementia and Social Exclusion with Mixed Reality Technology
- Website: http://mytactile.eu/
- Coordinator: CareCenter Software GmbH
- Duration: 30 months
- Starting Date: 03/2019
- Total Budget: € 1.800.000
- Public Contribution: € 1.100.000
Contact
Birgit Unger-Hrdlicka
E.: unger@carecenter.at
P.: +43 720 27 1000
